Our 1/48th
Kittyhawk F-94C Starfire build with our man Eth at the desk is nearly finished – we thought now would be a
good time to present you with the part of the build that involve choosing
colours and decalling .
Usually at this stage in the build we are faced with
a plethora of decals, usually around the 200 mark if we are doing a modern jet,
as an example the Revel 1/48th Typhoon has over 200 decals if you
choose to use them all. However in the case of the Starfire the decal count is
much, much lower.
There are two decal options for the Starfire, one in
bright red and one in blue and white, the bright red option was the one
chosen. All of the decals are printed in
good register and, as I was to find out, work very well with Micro set and Sol
setting solutions.
My usual way of working with decals is to place the
largest ones first and finish with the smallest. The national insignias went on
well as did the large “USAF” decals, so far so good
The main area of concern with these decals was the
large “U S Air Force” decal that went on both sides of the fuselage. Large
decals are always problematic, no matter who produces them, however this time i
was in for a pleasant surprise.
Using plenty of setting solution the decal was teased
into place using a blunt paint brush handle and some cocktail sticks. Despite
the trepidation i had felt before applying the decal there were no problems
other than making sure it was straight.
After the fuselage decal the tail decal was a breeze
again the only issue being lining it up correctly. After the large decals were
all in place it was time to turn to the smaller decals, and here there was an
issue.
According to the instructions there should be two
decals (number 23) that go in the area indicated in the above photograph, one
for each wing. Although the instructions clearly show the decals and their
number there is nowhere on the decal sheet for these decals to fit. Obviously
they have been missed out altogether from the decal sheet. Fortunately this is
an easy fix but one that would have to wait until all the decals were on and a
protective coat of varnish was sprayed to protect the decals.
These are the sort of decals i like, the large ones
went on without any issues and with only a few small ones they did not drive me
mad trying to work out where they went and which way up.
So with all the decals taken care of the Starfire
received two coats of varnish and then was set aside for 48 hours before the
final assembly could begin and the missing decals were dealt with.
Ethellian..
Ethellian..
Keep checking back to see what this little kit turned
out like – it looks quite promising!